Monday, August 15th, 2005

Ballad Of A Thin Man

The LA Times has begun been running a periodic feature called the “Songwriters Series” where they sit down with an artist of note and discuss his or her creative process. And who better to inaugurate this feature than one Bob Dylan? The notoriously reclusive Mr Zimmerman continues to surprise with his newfound openness with the press by speaking openly about how he wrote classics such as “Like A Rolling Stone” (“I’m not thinking about what I want to say, I’m just thinking ‘Is this OK for the meter?'”), “Just Like A Woman (“It’s a city song. It’s like looking at something extremely powerful, say the shadow of a church or something like that.”) and “Blowin’ In The Wind” (“I wrote ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ in 10 minutes, just put words to an old spiritual, probably something I learned from Carter Family records”). I love how even when he tries to explain himself, he manages to be just as cryptic as ever, if not moreso.

With the release of Martin Scorcese’s Dylan doc No Direction Home imminent (it airs on PBS on September 26 and 27 and is available on DVD on September 20. The soundtrack to the film, which is also volume 7 in Dylan’s Bootleg Series, is out August 30), The Independent takes a look at another long-lost Dylan film that rarely sees the light of day, Eat The Document, which was helmed by DA Pennebaker (director of another classic Dylan pic, Don’t Look Back) and Dylan himself.

Billboard reports that the upcoming Elvis Costello DVD collecting all his video clips along with a slew of TV performances will feature artist commentary for each video from Declan himself. One of the sharpest and wittiest figures in rock, Costello’s reminiscences will make The Right Spectacle: The Very Best of Elvis Costello – The Videos a must-own for fans. It’s due out September 6 in the UK with North American release details still to be sorted out.

The Boston Herald profiles Joe Pernice and reveals that work has begun on a film adaptation of his semi-autobiographical contribution to the 33 1/3 series of books, Meat Is Murder. Given that nothing much actually happens in the novella, I can only assume that the film will either a) be a low-budget, shot-on-DV arthouse indie flick or b) have many gratuitous car chases inserted for mainstream appeal. And I secretly hope for the latter. Via Largehearted Boy.

American Music Club will be going on tour with Spoon in November – they call it a “North American tour”, which I can only hope includes a Toronto date. I went to Chicago last November to see them, it’s only fair they return the favour now. Related – Mark Eitzel’s newest solo release Candy Ass is out October 2 and his demos for AMC’s Love Songs For Patriots, recorded with Jay Bennett, have been collected as Demos Before Love Songs and will be released August 22. It’s available through their website.